Synchronicity - a bit of fun

[armando_m 1,791]

Made my own controller to shoot water drops using an Arduino NodeMcu microcontroller, this little things are fun and dirt cheap.

 

A bit of  the technicalities ... 

 

The controller connected to an electric valve and to the 10pin connector on the D800

 

The node mcu gets power from a 5 volts power supply via a mini USB connector

The electric valve works with 12 V Dc and 300ma, I used an old lap top battery charger, which provides 19V, added a resistor to limit the current to the proper value, the connection from the arduino to the valve needs a transistor, a resistance to drive teh transistor, and a diode across the solenoid pins  to protect from the transient current.

 

The D800 connection is to the awake and shoot pins, using a diode connected directly to one of the digital outputs, all the D800 needs is to have those pins grounded.

 

I wrote a short program to control:

• the size of the drops by varying the amount of time the valve opens
• the number of drops 
• the wait time between drops
• the wait time to shoot the camera

 

The node mcu comes with a wifi connection and the arduino can be set as a wifi access point and then act as a web server - this allowed to have a web page to control the variables from a remote connected browser, in this case my mobile phone

 

I had a lot of fun, my kids helped in the process from writing the html ( which I hate) to calculate the time in which the drop will hit the water, fix the water container , hold something on the water while I focused the camera, and cleaned up when the mess was to much 

 

I used a remote SB700 flash triggered by the on camera D800 flash, the SB700 was inside a translucent container to help diffuse the light

 

Water is on a glass container over a red tray

 

The resulting images are still so so compared to what others are achieving with similar setups, it is now a matter of getting creative with colors and different fluids

 

Thanks for looking and reading 

[Hugh_3170 342]

Armando, this is a nice outcome - a just reward for yours and your family's labours.  I like how you have directly integrated the camera into the set up via the 10-pin interface.  I look forward to more images as you develop your technology.

 

 

[Anthony 971]

Lovely results.  Drops of liquid are such fun  (but can be messy!).

[crowecg 521]

Looks like a wonderful set up.  Perhaps once my kids get onto something a bit more technical at school, we could give it a try.  

 

My attempts at water drop photos only got as far as camera on burst with a dripping tap, until I noticed I hadn't cleaned the sink!

[armando_m 1,791]

Thanks for commenting 

 

Hugh, yes, connecting the camera to the setup makes things more repeatable, not that water splashes the same any time at all, so it still takes lots of takes to capture something attractive, but every time there is something going on, whereas doing this manually you get a lot of empty images.

 

Anthony, the only messy time was when connecting the tubing to the valve, once that was done it was all controlled dripping , easily controlled within the tray 

 

crowecg, I'm not sure who had more fun me or the kids

[Fons Baerken 2,383]

Interesting stuff Armando.

[Anthony 971]

Making a mess is half the fun.

 

Armando, unleash your inner child!

[armando_m 1,791]

Thanks Fons and Anthony

 

here is another look